Italy

4,436 years since initial death
《━━━━━━━━━━ ♅ ━━━━━━━━━━》

Heirs to the Air.

The amazing and beautiful view of the mountains and valleys only served as a distraction during a time where all focus was of utmost importance. Only around a hundred feet off the ground, he was dangerously low. As he yanked the throttle to pull up, he found that he wasn't gaining any altitude. The mountain's peak only rose in front of him, keeping him at risk of crashing head-on.

Incoming gunfire from behind nearly tore his wings, some of which even grazed his tail. "Pull!" The gunner in the back screamed at the top of his lungs, obviously in a state of panic. Less than a hundred feet now, they were about to crash. German aircrafts were right behind them, firing aggressively and continuously. They had to take an evasive maneuver.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" The pilot revealed his true nature. His frustration only led to anger, ultimately leading to his powerful wrath.

The pilot continued to pull as hard as he possibly could, even yelling in the process as he did. They were starting to gain altitude, but it wasn't enough. The Austrian biplanes arrived, closing in from the side, aiding the Germans.

The tip of the mountain was right ahead of them, and the Italian biplane barely made it past without getting hit. Immediately, the pilot jammed the throttle forward, nearly snapping it. The plane dangerously took a dive down the mountain for a few meters and gained a sudden and tremendous amount of speed.

Suddenly, the pilot pulled up again, flying directly straight towards the open sky. From here, the view of the war was perfectly clear. The Italian infantry were holding their defenses, despite the heavy fire raining upon them.

Tanks arrived at the scene, traversing over the rough valleys and hills. Gunfire boomed in the distance, this war was far different than any other he had experienced before in his life. Automatic rifles, machine guns, pistols, explosives, grenades, heavily armored war vehicles, flying machines; he thought he'd seen it all. One weapon from this era could have wiped out an entire battalion of knights from the Middle Ages.

The thought terrified him, that's how far they had come. The evolution of mankind, and their addiction to war and combat. Given enough time, it was of no surprise they had achieved such a level of destruction.

"They're going to hit us!" The gunner was still panicking in the back, desperately trying his best to keep the German fighters off their tail. Matteo remained focused, trying his best to stay calm. He could care less about getting shot or crashing his plane, but his gunner doesn't deserve to die with hum.

After gaining a bit of altitude and surveying the surrounding area, he had an idea. It was a terrible one for sure, but it was better than nothing.

"Brace yourself!" He gave his final order before completely lowering the plane into a nose dive. Enemy artillery had started to notice him and began opening fire. But he was too fast, his actions were entirely unpredictable. The gunner in the back started praying loudly, fearing their ride would end in disaster.

The German forces behind followed in the dive, continuing their constant barrage of gunfire. They were close, but it was hard to aim properly when spiraling downwards so fast. "We can't pull up like this! We're going to die!" Despite the constant yelling behind him, Matteo knew what he was doing.

He's not going to pull up. Not yet at least. Instead, he jammed the stick hard to the left, turning his plane sideways and barely avoiding the gunfire behind him. With one final move, he pulled the stick back as hard as he could. They didn't gain any altitude yet, but they were flying on their side, directly alongside the mountain.

There were trees in the distance, and Matteo managed to thread the needle precisely as he was already flying sideways. Straight through the trees without issue, he leveled his plane and turned right, straight into the sky allowing him to fly in the open air once more.

He couldn't help but let out a laugh, this was one of the greatest feelings in the world. Feeling the wind rush and blow against his face, flying high and fast. It was something he had never felt in all his years of being alive, it was magnificent. As expected, the German planes behind couldn't keep up, one of them even crashed. Now, they were left to deal with Austrian forces that were in heavy fire with the other Italian pilots.

Flying directly into the aerial combat, the battle was on. "Nine o'clock, nine o'clock! You see them?" He yelled, signaling the gunner to turn. The bullets were sprayed through the sky, some of the other planes have started to catch on fire. Ground artillery turned the crystal clear blue sky into a grayish hell straight out of a nightmare, as explosions scattered around them all.

Matteo turned his plane, dodging the incoming fire. It was too much for him, he was being hit from several directions. The sounds of planes flying by, the propellors and the constant barrage of bullets had turned into pure insanity. He nose dived once more to shake off his pursuers, but he was about to pull a different trick.

Instead of pulling up, he continued pushing the throttle forward. He was forming a loop. They were now upside down, with the valleys directly above. It was a sight to behold, but now was not the time to gaze at the scenery. Completing the loop, he was behind the Austrian planes that had just scattered to avoid gunfire.

His eyes were locked on his target, and he pressed the trigger. The closest plane ahead was struck by his fire, losing a wing as it started to fall ouf of the sky. His gunner managed to accomplish the same task. They both celebrated in the air, laughing and cheering with a sense of pride. "What did I tell you pal?" Matteo shouted, turning his head back to look at his allied gunner behind him. "Heirs to the air, buddy! Ain't this grand? Woo!"

Every daunting memory that had ever haunted him was gone. Up here, nothing could reach him. There was nothing he couldn't do when in the sky, he truly felt divine. For a second, he forgot about the war around him. Every chance he got to admire his surroundings, he took it. He hasn't laughed this much in a terribly long time.

Then, he got hit. The artillery finally caught up to them, tearing apart their left wing until it completely blew up. With a fire now beginning to spread, the shattered wing detached from the the biplane.

"Dios mio!" The gunner screamed. They were spiraling out of control, losing altitude fast. It was impossible to maneuver the plane any longer.

Matteo looked all around him. The plane was about to start spinning wildly in the air. This was their only chance to abandon the plane and jump, otherwise they'll become a part of the crash site. "Bail! I can't keep her stable!" He screamed for his gunner.

The gunner willingly vaulted over the side of the biplane, only briefly hesitating beforehand. Immediately, he began to fall as gunfire continued to surround them. Pulling his parachute, he glided down to safety, miraculously reaching the ground alive with nothing but his pistol. He looked up to the sky and spotted the plane he was just previously in. It was mere moments away from disaster.

Unfortunately, Matteo was stuck. As he tried to grab his parachute, the plane shifted violently and his head immediately struck the throttle. He yelled in pain, accidentally letting go of the parachute. It got thrown out. There was no time left to jump, his chance to survive was now gone. Staring directly ahead of him, he could only sigh in defeat. He knew what to expect and he was ready for it.

"Ah, fuc..."

His gunner watched from the ground as the plane flew directly into the side of a distant mountain, immediately exploding on impact. Fire had started to spread and rage violently from the burning wreckage, it was impossible for any average human being to survive this disaster.

That remained to be true for Matteo. His death was quick and spared him from any further agony. It was only a matter of awaiting resurrection. It's something he's been used to for thousands of years, he has the routine memorized like clockwork.

However, what he didn't expect was someone to find his body. As he remained in the front of the plane, the fire had finally started to settle. A figure approached, carefully picking him up and dropping him to the ground. Grabbing his legs, the figure dragged him away from the wreckage. His rescuer placed his corpse over a nearby motorbike as they started to drive away from the site.

He was taken to a small isolated cabin overlooking the grand valleys and mountains.

When he wakes up again, he'll be met with a surprise.

《━━━━━━━━━━ ♅ ━━━━━━━━━━》
Historical Notes:

After Italy's defeat in the Battle of Caporetto, Mount Grappa became the most important pillar of Italy's defense in the war. The Italians resorted to forming caves and constructing fixed emplacements for their artillery.

"A German Fighting Monoplane Flying Very Near the Ground Photographed from Directly Underneath", January 1st, 1917

Alongside four of the most common types of aéroplanes (reconnaissance, fighters, bombers, trench strafers), tethered observation balloons and behemoth zeppelins were deployed into the skies during war.

Before machine gun mounted turrets were installed in fighter planes, pilots would resort to shooting enemy aircrafts with pistols or rifles.

Germany was far ahead of the Allied forces in terms of technological advancements in warfare. The Germans were able to construct the "Biggest Gun in the World" named Lange Max. It was an artillery gun capable of firing 750kg shells a distance of up to 50km (31 miles).

《━━━━━━━━━━ ♅ ━━━━━━━━━━》